1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to inverted microscopes, and, more particularly, the present invention relates to an inverted microscope including a light emission unit which can be removably mounted in the inverted microscope and including a stage which can be removably mounted and variably positioned according to whether or not the light emission unit is installed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Inverted microscopes are known. For example, FIG. 5 is a side view of a conventional inverted microscope. As shown in FIG. 5, the conventional inverted microscope includes a microscope housing 110 which supports a stage 121 at both ends thereof; an illuminating column 130, which constitutes a transmission illumination system, positioned on one end of the microscope housing 110; a revolving nosepiece 171 located below the stage 121 on which objective lenses 170 are mounted; an up-and-down movement unit 180 and an up-and-down movement handle 181 to move the revolving nosepiece 171 up and down; and an observation unit 140 to observe an image formed by the objective lens 170.
The conventional inverted microscope shown in FIG. 5 also includes a fluorescent light device 160 which is necessary when performing fluorescent light observations with the inverted microscope. The fluorescent light device 160 includes a fluorescent light cassette 163 having a dichroic mirror 165 to reflect light having short wavelengths and to transmit light having long wavelengths.
In order to demonstrate the expected performance of the dichroic mirror 165, it is desirable for illuminating light condensed by the objective lens 170, and reflected from a specimen 150 positioned on the stage 121, to pass through the fluorescent light cassette 163. For this purpose, the fluorescent light device 160 is inserted into a hollow in a lower side of the up-and-down movement unit 180 which moves the revolving nosepiece 171 up and down to a desired location.
However, the space to mount the fluorescent device 160 is wasted space if a visual observation by a user of the inverted microscope takes place without performing fluorescent light observation, or without performing phase difference observations. Further, the position of the stage 121 is higher by the amount of the space required to mount the fluorescent light device 160, causing the position of the illuminating column 130 to become high. As a result, a problem occurs in that the inverted microscope becomes bulky.
Moreover, when the position of the stage 121 is high, the operability becomes poor when changing the specimen 150, or when operating a manipulator of a micro-scale (not shown) in the upper surface of the stage 121 or illuminating column 130.
In contrast to the inverted microscope shown in FIG. 5, another type of inverted microscope is known which solves the above-noted problems of the microscope shown in FIG. 5 by providing an inverted microscope having a microscope housing 110 which does not have the space required to insert the fluorescent light device 160 (i.e., a microscope housing from which the observer cannot take out the fluorescent light device). However, two types of inverted microscopes would then be required, and the manufacturing cost is increased.
Moreover, because the observer cannot remove the fluorescent light device 160 after purchasing the inverted microscope, it is very difficult to expand the system when the necessity arises to install the fluorescent light device 160. Therefore, another inverted microscope has to be purchased in which the fluorescent light device can be installed, and the user ends up incurring extra cost.